Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dear Journal (no Nora, Ruby, and Yang it isn’t a diary so stop calling it that!!), 

Semblances.

You know, after years and years of studying (comic books and TV) you’d think I know what a semblance is. Who wouldn’t? It’s one of the staples of being a Huntsman, right? Cool weapons, cool clothes, and a cool or sometimes insane semblance. Well let’s see if I complete the list. Cool weapon? Well…Crocea Mors is….Crocea Mors….never really had to clean it or repair it. By ‘it’ I am obviously referring to both- the sword- actually…I don’t know. Is the sword ‘Crocea’ and the shield is ‘Mors’? Is it the other way around? Maybe the sword is ‘Crocea Mors’ and the shield is just a shield that can turn into a sheathe. Screw it, the whole thing is ‘Crocea Mors’. 

Where was I? Right, right….well the cool weapon will be in the ‘maybe’ pile for now. Cool clothes? Hoodie, jeans, gloves, and some armor. Okay I’m not blind, they don’t really scream ‘hero’ energy so clothes are a definite ‘no’. Semblance? That’s….actually the big issue. Besides studying and trying to get the princess. Yeah, yeah I know asking out Weiss is a bit of a losing battle (read: waste of time), but that’s an issue for later. 

Semblance…..semblance…..what is a semblance? From how Ren described it, it’s an ability that people have a chance to unlock that’s tied to their soul and can show a bit of their personality. While I do like that explanation, some semblances I’ve seen don’t really reflect that. 

Ren wasn’t the only one I asked, of course. He’d be the…5th…6th person I asked so far. Right now I’ve asked Ruby, Pyrrha, Weiss, Yang, and Blake in that order before going to him. Speaking of, that connects back to my problem with how semblances are explained. After some learning (looking up on my scroll), semblances are as weird as I assume they are. They’re special to some extent but people can have similar semblances. The special part is mostly what the reason is of why said semblance even comes out. 

Nora said hers came to be after being hit by a huge lightning bolt, which caused her body to forcibly make her semblance about being able to handle electricity. The side effect isn’t actually her unlimited hyper-ness (surprising I know) but it causes the electricity around her or that her body comes into contact with to help her body become stronger, faster, etc. Makes sense, but maybe there is something more to it. I mean, we’ve all seen Blake make ‘shadows’ of herself but she can sometimes make those clones stay a while with either more aura or using dust. Pyrrha’s is all about controlling anything with metal properties or something like that ( which is an absolutely insane semblance to have).

But apparently Weiss’ family has a hereditary semblance that is also one of the most broken things I’ve read about. I would be more jealous…..buuuuuuut personally I don’t really like the idea of having a power that’s passed down through blood. Feels...not as special. Do I have much room to talk? No. And I get it…I stole a very important weapon that’s tied to my family’s history, bought some cheap armor before coming to Beacon, and right now trying to learn how to be an ideal Huntsman and leader of a team that can overpower me in their sleep. 

Wait, where was I? Semblances! Right…..maybe…maybe I should just listen to Pyrrha and Ruby when they say to not focus on what I don’t have right now. But what do I have then? Smarts? No. Brawn? Not really….actually…..I am a bit muscular from all the clean up work I did for my dad’s martial arts classes. Still don’t get why he uses those weird backpacks that look like turtle shells. 

Wait, that doesn’t help my case at all, even Ruby and Weiss are more toned than me. Nora and Yang are obviously the most muscular people I’ve seen so far besides my folks. Wait….sorry, sorry….semblances…right….wait no..not that either. What do I have? What does Jaune Arc have? Aura? Pyrrha told me a few times now that I have a decent amount of it…an amount that even Professor Goodwitch has talked about with me a few times after being held back when her combat class ends. 

It’d be sort of ironic if I get a semblance actually tied to aura. Or would it be coincidental? I mean, me…a guy who lucked his way into Beacon…nothing really great about me besides my aura level and maybe my improvisation skills. What kind of semblance would I have if it was aura related anyway? Maybe make a whole set of armor around me out of aura? That’d be nice, completing my whole ‘knight’ thing along with my wish to contribute to my family’s legacy. Or would it make more sense if Crocea Mors was also tied to my would-be semblance. I’ve seen enough of the internet to know I wouldn’t hate being able to extend the range of my attacks by being able to shoot aura out of my sword....or even the shield! Wait..do I even want an offensive semblance? Ruby has her speed semblance, Weiss’ and Blake’s I already talked about, and Yang has her semblance that builds up so she can hit harder. 

Meanwhile Ren can hide away people’s emotions or feelings for a short while and I talked about Nora and Pyrrha’s semblances before too. Personally I’d list our group like this: Ruby, Yang, and Pyrrha having the better offensive semblances. Blake has an evasive semblance, I mean Ren’s kind of counts too but mostly usable against Grimm and maybe people who can sense emotions or feelings. Weiss' is very versatile while Nora's isn’t that useful unless either a storm is happening, her enemies are using shock dust, or we’re carrying some dust for her. Technically, I should wish for a more offensive semblance right? Ren’s semblance is situational while Nora is almost impossible to use unless we always stock up on shock dust. And Pyrrha can use hers in lots of situations, and it’s not like she’d ever struggle in a fight anyway...right? 

Anyways, I am worried what kind of semblance I’d get. My dad’s semblance wasn’t anything great, he’s able to create a flash of light and its effectiveness depended on how much aura he used. A few of my uncles and aunts that visit say that he can just blind his foes with his bald head though. My mom’s semblance seems lackluster but she says it works for her. A faster rate of aura regeneration. It does seem like a plain semblance, but she and dad have told too many tales of how that ‘endless’ aura helped out way more than they thought. 

I’d ask the others about their parents too if I didn’t notice that even mentioning a family around a few of them seems to bring pain to their face or eyes. I…I really don’t get it…but I have enough respect and awareness to not ask about that stuff right now. 

I’ll…just end this entry here. TLDR; What can my semblance be? Would it be something I can use whenever? Would it even be something I’d accept as an extension of me? I’d even take actually being a human light bulb like dad! Anyways, see you next time di- journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

It’s been 2 days or so since the last entry. During that time I tried to do some more research (ACTUAL research this time) into what semblances are. I didn’t get the answers I wanted to find (no duh), but there are a few things I want to remember which is mostly why I’m writing this.

Ever since the first semblance (recorded wise), there have been the ‘normal’ semblances that show up the most often. Some types of these semblances are speed and strength based ones. But even these two types can be complicated when learning about what classifies as either one of them. Like yeah, Ruby’s semblance is speed related but she also becomes a pile of rose petals and leaves a few of them around. ‘Normal’ speed semblances can leave a trail at times (lightning, gusts of wind, etc.), yet Ruby’s seems to be the only one that makes her turn into a pile of petals. 

And for an obvious example of the other type her sister, Yang, is a strength semblance but it’s an exponential boost that depends on being damaged first. Low amount of damage = small boost, decent amount of damage = medium boost, and high/deadly amount of damage = most powerful boost. 

Actually…I just noticed something. Yang really doesn’t like dodging. She can flip around and do other stunts, but doesn’t seem to dodge during spars and such. Is…is that normal? Wait yeah…almost everyone else in this school is acrobatic or flexible. Am..am I once again the odd one out? I’m not very flexible but I’m also not stiff due to years of dancing and other things I won’t waste time mentioning right now. Cardin and his team don’t seem flexible or acrobatic too…..wait that’s not a good thing to be similar to them. Should I start training on that aspect? Do some yoga or something to like…curl up into a ball easily? 

Anyway! Returning onto the first sub topic. I guess…certain habits can come from semblances? Or maybe it would explain why semblances sometimes represent your soul too? Some books and websites I read/learned from have said that, but also advise to never assume anything about a person because of their semblance, semblance color, or the name for their semblance. Oh yeah! Names of semblances!

Forgot to mention that during the time between entries I asked more about my friends’ (or at least I hope we’re friends) semblances. I..how do I type this out…I’ll just start with my team then go to Ruby’s.

Up first, everyone’s favorite, Nora! Her semblance wasn’t named by her but it was Ren (of course) and it’s called ‘High Voltage’. Up next is my own partner! Pyrrha’s semblance is just named ‘Polarity’. A bit bland for a name, but who’d argue about it straight to her face? And finally it’s Ren’s turn! For his semblance’s name, it’s called ‘Tranquility’. Makes sense…but I personally feel like it’s a bit misleading. While the literal definition is “the quality or state of being tranquil; calm,” it...I don’t know…while his semblance is that word for word…maybe there’s more to it? I can’t really prove it but whenever he uses it on himself or another person, they turn greyer which isn’t something that usually happens when someone is calmed. Yeah, it might just be how his semblance makes it look when he’s calming someone down, but he’s…his semblance is more like a…instant mute button or cover on feelings? Again, I don’t know what to really say…I’ll think more on it later. 

Onto team RWBY. Right after Ren, it’s Ruby! Her semblance is called ‘Petal Burst’. And you know what, almost as good of a name as ‘High Voltage’. Now the ‘W’ of the team. Weiss’ semblance, like I mentioned in my last entry, is a hereditary semblance called ‘Glyphs’. She becomes basically some sort of magic caster. She summons these giant circles of various colors with designs in the middle of them. The ‘various colors’ depend on what dust is used with her semblance or what glyph she’s using in general. So far I’ve only seen her use some fire glyphs, ice glyphs, shock glyphs and the plain white and black glyphs, but as I also said in the last entry the other uses glyphs can provide are supposed to be known as strong to all the way to overpowered. Moving on from her, it’s Blake’s turn. And the name of her semblance is ‘Shadow’. The name is basic like Pyrrha’s…but again I’m not the one that’s gonna tell her that right to her face. Finally, the ‘Y’ of team RWBY, Yang! Her semblance is called ‘Burn’. Like Ren’s I think the name is a bit misleading. As said in the beginning of this entry, it’s a counter of sorts for if she takes a certain amount of damage. This ‘counter’ is more of a power boost that makes her hit about 10x harder at its max output, and Yang can already break a wall or two with her bare hands! However, she doesn’t get any other boost besides strength which would leave her defense, speed, etc. at the same level before she goes into ‘Burn’ mode. That doesn’t mean she’s any more easy to beat though!

Where was I before all this? Oh! Right…types of semblances. After the ‘normal’ types of semblances you’d have basically every other semblance ever. The not as normal, or ‘abnormal’, types that are also broken up into more and more groups. You have one group about the types of elements which would be Nora and my dad’s group, the group about controlling a type of material like Pyrrha’s, and the one all about ‘defensive’ semblances is where I’d put Ren’s, Blake’s, and my mom’s semblances in. Illusionary semblances are right above ‘abnormal’ but below this next tier due to how rare they are. Then there’s the ‘Mystic’ tier of semblances. Why is it called ‘Mystic’? Who knows…personally I think it’s just to make these semblances known to be extremely rare and they are rightfully powerful. This is where semblances like Weiss and Professor Goodwitch’s are placed. A few more of these would include: time-manipulation semblances, natural disaster-related semblances, and a few others that are on a similar scale. There’s some fairy tales and folktales about people with semblances that provide multiple types of powers, but I’ll just focus on those another time since they are said to originate far before the ‘first’ semblance.

A few of the websites I got this information from also had a ‘semblance test’ thing. You’d answer some questions and then it would use those answers to try and calculate your chances for certain semblances. Is it reliable? No clue, to be honest. A few other articles I’ve read said that while identical twins can have completely different semblances, there’s some chance of their semblances being either the same thing or connected to each other in some way. Which is another point to semblances being a complicated ‘system’. A person can have a semblance related to fire, but what it does can be vastly different compared to another fire semblance. Like if someone can heat up their hands while the other person can only walk through flames. 

And while there are some chances that a child’s semblance would be a combination of some kind of their parents’ semblances, that chance is at most 1%. So…let’s say I actually get that chance. A semblance that is a mix between my dad’s and my mom’s. The ability to create a light show mixed with the ability of faster aura regeneration…yeah I got nothing. Maybe something like photosynthesis? The more I stay in sunlight or something it’d boost the rate my aura recovers? Yeah....maybe I should just…actually try to better myself first. Or even take some lessons from my dad’s stories instead of trying to unlock my semblance. Even though I’m still highly skeptical about when he said his mentor created a technique to shoot out aura that could possibly level mountains. 

TLDR; I learned more about the history and reasons behind all kinds of semblances. Still hoping I’ll get a cool semblance too. And yeah, I know I should focus on myself first before trying to get a semblance...but come on, I know I’m not the first person to think about having a cool power! It’s like reading X-ray and Vav and wishing I had those powers-wait…I got my next topic. Yeah…yeah! I’ll…I’ll try to learn more about fictional media with their own power systems…maybe they’d have something I could learn from? Anyways, see ya next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Okay….a bit of a longer break since the last entry, but it was for a good reason I swear. Okay maybe not ‘good’, but the reason was important! 

So…I…I just got into a mood for a few days…after talking about how much I want my semblance to be cool and stuff. I…was doing some solo training (flailing my arms around) in a private training room I was able to reserve since it’s part of my benefits of being a team leader. During that whole ‘practice’ I…raged? Yeah, let’s go with that. My feelings really got the better of me, which showed more after getting my sword stuck in the dummy which made me use my shield like a giant shovel to whack the dummy. You know, things like ‘I don’t deserve a cool semblance’... ‘I should just focus on not being as bad as I am now’...etc.

After a few minutes of yelling stuff and punching the shield further into the dummy when I eventually got the shield also stuck like my sword, I was surprised to hear the training room’s door close behind me. I swore I closed and locked the damn thing! When I turned around I was at first shocked and then outright terrified as Cardin and his team walked closer to me. 

I…my mind was out of focus again while Cardin and one of his teammates were…talking? I guess they were…but anyway when I got back to reality, they were basically extorting me so I can ‘help’ them with school work while promising they would stay silent on my whole fake transcript issue. Oh yeah I cheated my way into Beacon…surprise? 

Who am I kidding…….I’m finished. ITSS OVER!!!!

I…I don’t know what to do, I’m currently typing this out while I sit on a roof area. Going to a professor or the headmaster seems stupid. Dumber than everything I managed to do so far! I really want to go to my team…or even Ruby…but I just can’t. I just can’t find the willpower in me to do it. How am I supposed to do this? HOW!?!? 

Here I am…Jaune Saint Arc…sitting on a rooftop. Ran away from home. Stumbled my way through initiation. AND THE HARD TIMES KEEP COMING! 

AND YEAH I GET IT! I AM LUCKY! A MOM! A DAD! 7 WONDERFUL SISTERS! MY HOMETOWN! BUT I STILL WANT- NO I NEEDED TO DO MORE THAN JUST STAND AROUND AND GUARD THE WALLS!

….this is a big risk…a risk worth too much, a kind of risk I haven’t at all taken besides blaming my ‘magazines’ on Saphron. 

I don’t know what to do still…I’ve been getting a few worried texts from my team and Ruby. Even Yang has sent a few things! 

My brain is fried trying to come up with ideas to help me out of this situation. I’ll…I don’t want to lie…I hate lying…the lies I told my family before I left for Beacon still weigh heavily and I don’t want the last entry in my journal to be so depressing. If I get out of this alive, see ya next time journal…right now I have some homework to do that isn’t mine

Chapter Text

Dear Journal,

Hey……been a while since I wrote anything huh?

Sorry for that…I- it’s been rough, honestly. I’ve been basically doing 5x or more work than I should be doing. Working a 7 to 9 job with no rewards besides feeling like an absolute tool. 

I want to do it. I want to just tell my team the truth. Or Ruby…maybe even the headmaster himself at this point. I hate this, all of it. 

I’m hiding on a roof area again so I’m not hounded by my team or Ruby and her team about where I’ve been or whatever. How the…not the mighty…..I’ve never been mighty…..how the awful has fallen, yeah that fits.

I want to keep this one short. I…there’s a field trip we’re doing tomorrow to Forever Fall that’ll take up most of the class hours, so it’s just that and nothing else. 

Do or die, journal…what do I do. I can’t and won’t let my time in Beacon be reduced to being some bullies' minion. This situation is one of the things my dad fought against, and his father, and his father’s father, and so on. I can’t be an actual Huntsman while being stuck in this kind of situation.....I just can’t!

….it got colder up here, guess that’s enough writing for now. Till next time, if there even is one.

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Cutting this intro stuff short, there’s too much to talk about. So so so much happened. This entry will also be split into parts but there’s a really good reason for that. 

Where would I even start with- the start, might as well begin from the Forever Fall trip. 

Ok…so…the main task for that trip was to collect sap from the trees with the use of plain, glass jars. Normally everyone would just be grouped with their team but I was obviously eventually pulled away to do whatever Cardin and his team wanted me to do. 

So yeah, I was put to work by filling all of their jars with sap by myself. Let me tell ya…..it was not fun. Almost immediately I had some reaction to the sap that made my nose runny and my eyes watery. The blame should be on the trees, I did not and would not ever think I would be allergic to some sap but there I was. 

And here’s the real kicker…..the sap wasn’t for the field trip assignment…they were going to throw those jars full of sap at my team and Ruby’s….my friends. While they prepared to throw the jars, I was in my head. I started to realize what I’ve done. What I was going to cause. My spineless, worthless self got me into this mess, but my brain had to work overdrive to stop this. But what could I do? What would happen? Go with the first thought in my head? 

I don’t know what happened…honest! One moment I was shocked that the jars were being used against my friends…the next moment I found myself in front of CRDL but also drenched in sap and glass pieces from the jars. My allergic reaction to the sap came through fast, but the Grimm who were somehow in the Forever Fall were faster. One second I was blinking away the tears that were appearing in my eyes, the next I saw larger than average Ursas and Beowolves attacking CRDL while they tried to fight back. 

I used ‘tried’ because we were attacked so fast. I barely got my shield out in time to even block a stray attack from an Ursa. I basically had both parts of Crocea Mors being used by only my right hand as I wiped at my eyes with my left hand. If you thought I sucked before…..don’t read the next few sentences. It..has never been a thought in my mind about how awkward it would be to use a shield and a sword with one arm. It was so much worse since I kept having to wipe away tears or sap from my face, but that would just spread them more on my face due to how bad I was at wiping them away. I think I killed a Beowulf by accident, couldn’t really tell because…..duh.

The next time I cleared my eyesight, I saw an Ursa barreling towards me. Not just a plain, old Ursa but a clearly grown one. Anything left in me died as I just accepted my faith...but noooo, imagine my shock as my right arm somehow moved to be in front of me to try and block it with my shield that I awkwardly gripped together with my sword. Why? Don’t know…..but I stuck with it. If my arm wants to keep fighting, then the rest of me will too. 

I tried to summon as much aura as I could before I got hit, hoping that I had enough to at least survive this attack. The last thing I saw was a bright flash of light as the Ursa got close enough to try to bash me with its head. 

I’ll…finish up what happened hopefully in my next entry. One of the things I can spoil is that after the field trip, I asked Pyrrha and Nora to spend some of their free time helping me turn my body into a proper one for a Huntsman. Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

I..am so tired..in a good way this time, I swear! To not spoil much, I’ve been getting thrown around by Pyrrha, Nora, and sometimes by Yang surprisingly. 

Anyways, where was I last- oh right, flash of light. 

Okay so, a bright flash of light shoots out of me right as a bigger-than-average Ursa charges at me. When the impromptu flashbang stopped messing with my eyesight, I felt the sickness and stuff from my sap allergy less than before and was somehow actually holding my ground as the Ursa continued bashing into my shield. Moments after this I’d be told that my body was covered in a constant flow of aura but that’s for later. 

I took a step forward to try to test something. To see if maybe, just maybe……I was finally starting to become something…something that I used to only dream about. With some words coming from my mouth that I can’t remember, I managed to shove the Ursa back enough for my right arm to awkwardly but swiftly thrust my sword forward into the Ursa’s face. I kept pushing until I felt less resistance and the starting process of it evaporating. At this point I felt…excited? Elated? You get what I mean…I was basically running on adrenaline and took advantage of it. 

I took a few seconds to finally have my shield and sword in different hands before starting to cull the Grimm that seemed to be attracted to the sap. Instead of charging in like an idiot, I got close enough for the smell of the sap still on my body to pull their attention away from the members of CRDL so I could either get a lucky hit in or hide behind my shield first. 

Eventually this tactic worked enough for Cardin and his team to help out and fight back. Sometime during the fight, I guess my team and RWBY also joined in? I…didn’t ask yet…but one moment it was just us guys and then I saw Nora flip over me to smash her hammer down onto a Grimm that was behind me. When all the Grimm were gone, that was when Professor Goodwitch showed up through some trees while tossing away a log that still had a Beowolf or two impaled on it, which was pretty brutal if you ask me. That’s when my glow-y form slowly stopped and I was no longer covered head-to-toe in aura. 

Blah blah blah, some questions from her, some talking from my team and RWBY….after that, I stayed behind a bit with CRDL..wanting a word with them. Recalling what aura I had left, I let my aura cover me again as I warned them to not mess with me anymore or any of my friends. I left it at that and walked towards where Professor Goodwitch and my friends went as the aura around my body slowly stopped flowing. 

I eventually caught up to the rest of them, which was admittedly very awkward for me. I tried to stay farther behind but my team did the opposite and slowed down to match my pace. Why would they? I’ve been nothing but a complete failure as their leader. It’s why I kept quiet even as we fell into a rhythm with each other’s steps. 

Unsurprisingly, Nora was the one who broke the silence. She asked something about if I was going to be not in the dorm room again, which further increased my sense of dread and awkwardness. But I couldn’t keep doing that…so I….confessed to them. I talked about how I got under Cardin’s control, why it caused me to be so distant, and even a bit of why I couldn’t go to them or RWBY. 

I outed myself as a cheater…a faker…someone who didn’t at all deserve to be their leader. All for some dumb, childhood dream. I also told them that the last two or so weeks were the most fun I ever had, that I wouldn’t want any other team to be a part of. 

Instead of the responses I was expecting, they seemed very confused about why I was talking like I was going to stop being their leader. Which also confused me as I told them that’s what I thought they wanted after knowing more about me. 

It…the conversation got a bit more personal after that, even Ren talked more than usual. The talk we had while we stayed a good distance behind Professor Goodwitch and team RWBY was..uh…I guess good? 

They..they didn’t want me gone…they wanted me to stay on the team, stay as their leader. Again, that confused me a lot but we kept talking. Nora said she was getting really used to Pyrrha and I being there for her when Ren wasn't, which seemed to be a big compliment. Ren said that he’d track down where I was if I ever left him as the only guy surrounded by girls….which I can’t blame him for. And Pyrrha….she was more vocal…saying how it was never about what’s physically there but if my intentions were good and if I put in the work to eventually be better.

While she seemed to believe it was right, I said that it doesn’t at all change that I’m not supposed to be in this academy. That all my efforts don’t really seem that great or amazing when compared to themselves and RWBY, who actually worked to get into the academy. I thought that response would work but no…no it did not…that reply somehow got flipped into Pyrrha saying she could help me train during some free time. 

I was completely floored when I heard that, actually stopping in my steps as I turned my head to her. I was going to ask what she meant before Nora came back and started dragging me along while saying that she’d take care of putting ‘meat on this noodle’ since it’d be unfair if ‘Pyrrha gets all the fun’. I looked to Ren for help, which didn’t work at all because he kept looking forward while muttering about what kind of health drink I’d need as Pyrrha and Nora trained me. 

So yeah, that’s how that trip to Forever Falls went. TLDR; almost got my friends hurt with my stupidity, stood up to Cardin and his team, and reconnected with my team…..maybe also signed myself up for death- training…I meant training. Should probably also tell RWBY the truth too…..maybe just Ruby. 

Anyways, should be it for now…..unless I forgot a few things..probably nothing…..till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal,

So…it’s..it’s been going…? How do I say this…my training so far has been fine. More than fine actually, I feel and look a bit more….Huntsman-y now after Pyrrha and Nora have made me get used to the gym areas in Beacon. I’m not built like all of my friends are (seriously why do Ruby and Ren have sleeper builds, even Weiss!) and I also don’t expect to get a body like Yang’s in just a week or so. Thanks to my higher aura reserve, I can train longer and handle more weight which helps speed up the process. I’m not…cheating…if that’s what you’re thinking. Apparently it’s a good thing I can go farther instead of just dropping dead at certain points. 

Besides workout sessions with Nora, Pyrrha is really the one building me up from scratch. I started to like being more defensive for a fighting style so that’s what I asked to focus on for now. If you thought Pyrrha was a monster in a fight, you should see what happens when I’m sometimes forced to use my new semblance to help handle her barrage of attacks and feints. I knew I was going for a human-punching-bag type of style…but not literally!

Speaking of, we (me, Ren, and Pyrrha) are thinking that I unlocked my semblance after what happened in Forever Falls. Before this talk I thought it was a normal aura thing, that I can cover my whole body with it. I have yet to try it out much. It’s..it’s more of a pride thing. I don't want to cheapen the process of getting stronger. Ren also said I’d see more results if I train naturally first and then ‘boost’ myself later with my properly trained body. It sounded a lot smarter from him, but that’s the gist of it. 

I know, I know..it’s literally my semblance so it can’t be cheating, but I really do want to practice and workout a lot more with only my body so I can better handle my semblance. Some story I remember from Ruby is how she was scared of her semblance when she was younger since she kept speeding into walls and tables. The last thing I’d want to do is try to use my semblance to help lift something heavy but somehow blast my arms off since they’re still twigs, unless I could somehow glue my arms back on with my semblance...then maybe I could make ‘rocket fists’ an attack thing. Actually..I think I have an uncle who can blast his forearms off his arms like projectiles…might have to try to remember his number later. 

Wait, I meant my arms aren’t…actually they are still thin for my height and stuff….but like anything else in Beacon, I got time to catch up! I’ve also been trying to get the courage to at least tell Ruby about my fake transcripts, but we’ve all been busy lately. 

Oh right…forgot to say that…okay so around this time we actually had some tests to do. So far, I’m surprised I didn’t do that bad, solid B-’s! But Yang really surprised us, she somehow got higher grades than even Weiss and Pyrrha. I mean, I do have a decent grade in another subject, but only Ruby and I have that class since we’re leaders….doesn’t really seem fair to bring that up. 

Anyway yeah, that’s all I got for this entry right now…gotta finish this fast since I have another gym session and then a study session. Ren is also trying to find us time to head down into the city so I don’t look so……’plain’ as he says. Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Hey! Been a while, sorry about that…really needed to focus more on training and stuff. But, that also means I have a lot more to talk about! 

So besides all the boring stuff, apparently RWBY had some…in-team trouble? Personal trouble? It’s one of those or something else. Anyway, they seem to be better now…or at least it looks like it. Weiss doesn’t reject me as harshly anymore so something must have happened. Not….not that it’s weird for her to be nice once in a while…but you know, it is an obvious change. 

I won’t say a lot since it’s their business, even if I’m jealous of their night out. Or would be if it wasn’t for the detentions they got for a whole week or so. I mean they saw a girl shoot a laser beam that cut a bullhead in half. Sure my reaction to when Ruby told my team and I was a bit lackluster….still though, I might be finally getting some proper training in, but I am not at all prepared to even try to dodge a beam of energy. And the only reason I wasn’t as excited like Nora was is because I thought it was normal…that’s it. My uncles and a few cousins have done things similar to what this ‘Penny’ person did and Ren can do some things with his aura too during fights. 

Speaking of! I wanted to know more about the aura thing Ren can do, or at least that’s how I thought I asked it. Let’s just say my speaking skills need more training too. When I tried to ask him where he got the idea from he kept acting like I didn’t say anything. So of course I used Nora on him. After a few minutes of letting Nora do whatever, he confessed that the idea came from a….manga? Think I typed that right. I didn’t really get his embarrassment…..I mean..wasn’t a lot of media back then inspired by Hunters and stuff? Why can’t people become a future Huntsman or Huntress while being inspired from that same media? It’s thoughts like that that led me to liking comics and cartoons. People say a lot of ‘kid stuff’ isn’t enjoyable with how wacky they are…HAVE THEY SEEN OUR WORLD!?!!??!?!

Sure, it’s way easier to accept some things since we live with it right now….but imagine a world without semblances…or maybe if Faunus features didn’t exist…or if Faunus features were on everyone….those types of world can seem made up even if a few texts here and there say those kinds of world may have existed. 

Wait, too much off-topic-ness….so Ren’s cool thing, yeah…he said he was inspired by a series called ‘Hunter X Hunter’. After doing a bit of looking up, I can see why some of the stuff can inspire what Ren does. I then wanted to talk more about the series with Ren to see if the training the characters go through could actually work for us and our aura. 

I would later regret asking such questions since it has now become less fun and is basically another subject to learn about. Don’t get me wrong…Ren’s a great guy….but now his nose is buried in books more often than Blake or Weiss and usually gives me a good 3 or 4 pages for me to read about every day. Some of the things we found were great though, like sending a bit of aura into our eyes. It might look odd on the outside view but I could see Ren’s calm and pinkish aura while he saw my denser and ‘almost-white’ aura. The ‘almost-white’ part is due to Ren thinking he saw another color or two but my aura was still mostly a bright white. 

Eventually, we brought it up to the girls (Pyrrha, Nora, and RWBY) and even demonstrated it with our better practiced ‘aura eyes’......the name is of course pending. Ruby’s aura was of course red but also flowed around really fast, guess speed or whatever is really her thing. Weiss’ was more…uh…complex? It was a light blue or whitish-blue but also stretched out into a few small spheres. I don’t get what it meant, but it seemed to interest her too. Blake’s was a dark purple and had a weird smoky or hazy effect. Again, confusing since I’ve seen her clone semblance….but hey…maybe it’s just imagery that she can make her aura/semblance do whatever she wants. Yang’s was unsurprisingly a very bright yellow or gold color with an inferno-like flame surrounding her. Nora’s aura was pink with some traces of light blue and had a very…static-y look to it. Like a bunch of TV fuzz or something. Pyrrha’s is also a red aura and it looked like uh….uh…radio waves coming out of her…like a physical representation of a magnet’s attractive force-wait that makes sense. 

All that word vomit aside, Ren and I then showed a little presentation (yes we made it and no it is not ‘geeky’) about other things that are possible to recreate from ‘Hunter X Hunter’ with our aura. It…it went well……I guess? They mostly got what we were saying, but I think they were just humoring us honestly. Again I get it….it’s a bit odd to think that ‘fantasy’ things can actually happen. To which I activated ‘aura eyes’ again as Ren lifted up a hand while aura surrounded it but looked more solid than what normally happens when letting aura surround your hand. Two things that we know the girls couldn’t really do but did weakly attempt to mimic. 

I was proud enough of Ren and I’s research that I wanted to bring it up to our professors whenever we had time. Surprisingly Pro- Doctor Oobleck seemed more interested than Professor Goodwitch or Port. We couldn’t find Professor Peach…if she even exists, and the less said about Headmaster Ozpin the better. 

During all that studying and training, Ruby and even Yang asked that if we managed to somehow replicate things from ‘Hunter x Hunter’ then why not other serieses...to which I looked towards Ren as he looked towards me like we both had new ideas. 

Annnnnnnnd gotta cut this entry here since Ren must have found some other sources of inspiration already. Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Just getting right into it since there’s a lot more to talk about! 

After a few more days of exams, we’re all basically on break! I say ‘basically’ since some of the upperclassmen are still doing work here and there. Anyway, with this new amount of free time that meant Ren and I could explore more about other media to help broaden our ‘aura skills’. Again, name is pending but that’s the best we have so far. 

That’s all I can say about it due to Ren and I still not deciding on what we should do, it also means Ren does one series while I look into another. It’d be faster if we both did a series, but this also helps deal with so…much….source material. Seriously…it is so hard trying to narrow down franchises when they’re so cool but ‘realistically’ not practical. 

Enough of that, on to some of the actual fun stuff! Besides all the training and studying, I took it upon myself to introduce my team to some good ol’ fun via video games! 

Up first is Pokémon! Well, a ‘free’ version of the games at least. I somehow found decent emulators that our scrolls can run and not be accidentally turned into virus bombs. But, I didn’t just throw them into a few of the games. I had to first introduce what Pokémon was, how the games work, what different versions do, and so on. Pyrrha was surprisingly the one with the most-nevermind, just remembered that she probably didn’t have the time to play games like that. I would have asked Nora and Ren, but Nora already answered a few things when she said that some arcades they went to had Pokémon machines. 

The first time I ever heard that, I’d chalk it up to growing up in my hometown for too much of my life and not really wanting to ‘explore’ all the new technology. 

After all that, I had to introduce each starter for each region. Unsurprisingly, Ren chose the 6th generation. The reason should be a bit obvious, but two words: Ninja. Frog. Nora chose the 3rd generation only because I mentioned that’s when a sloth pokemon was added. Pyrrha…..chose the 8th generation. Well she didn’t just want one of the games, she wanted both since…well…her weapons. On paper, that’s fine…..but after remembering the prices for even one of the newer gens just made it seem iffy. A few reviews of the game also weren’t that great compared to the older generations….but hey whatever Pyrrha wants, she gets. I will not argue with a person who can turn my armor into a can opener. 

Actually, a few things in Pokémon did look cool. One of the moves is literally ‘Aura Sphere’. Research for later…..oh! Right, right….so after getting them emulators for the games they wanted (Since we didn’t have any of the actual consoles to use and I did not want them to risk playing buggy or fake versions), I let them play on their own while I went to go use a training room. On the way there I literally ran into Ruby which had us fall to the floor for a bit. By the time I sat up on the ground, I learned she seemed to have escaped from another one of Weiss’ ‘tutoring’ sessions and was trying to get away. By ‘learn’ I mean I watched Weiss appear from behind Ruby and drag her away by an ear. If anyone asked, no…no I did not hear any cries for help. 

When actually getting to a training room, I did some basic things like blocking forms and all that. I’ve also been trying different ways to store the shield part of Crocea Mors on my body, like on my back. While it helps keep the balance more centered instead of having more weight on a hip, taking longer to take the shield off my back wouldn’t be ideal in an actual scenario. 

Oh! I did do something cool, to me at least, by accident. Instead of the sword part of Crocea Mors being a little bit sharp, I can surround it with my aura and help it cleave through things easier. The differences aren’t that noticeable until looking at the state of the wires and stuff inside the training dummies. I also learned a neat trick to recall the sword back to me by leaving a bit of my aura in the handle and then focusing on that portion of aura. It’s more complicated than that but that’s the best I got to explain it. Maybe….maybe I could do something like that with my shield too? Thoughts for later…..

There’s a bit more to this that I’ll finish next time, apparently Nora has found out about these ‘nuzlocke’ challenges and now wants all of JNPR to try one……this is going to go bad in a very fun way…anyway, see ya next time journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

I am so sorry for the lack of entries but, again, there are reasons for it. After my team and I played a few random nuzlockes (more on that later), Ren was the one to bring up if there were any games that we could actually play together in real time. I wasn’t expecting the question so soon but I was prepared anyway! I, of course, started by introducing the different types of multiplayer games. From fun games like Mario Party to games like Rainbow Six Siege, I wanted to make sure that they learned there is a game out there for anyone! 

Due to my attention being stuck on introducing and explaining multiple games that allow multiplayer activities, I didn’t notice our dorm room’s door was left a little bit open. I’m too used to my sisters barging into my room or vice versa to realize Ruby and Yang were now in my team’s dorm and were listening to me go on about video games. It wasn’t until I started to talk about video games with zombies that I finally noticed them. 

For Ruby, she instantly wanted in on whatever we were doing since it was about video games while Yang just wanted to see how long it’d take for me to know they were there. Long story short, not only was my team going to be playing a game altogether but team RWBY would also be playing with us. I don’t know how Blake and Weiss were convinced, must have been Ruby’s influence. 

Anyway! As I explained once more about a variety of multiplayer games that could handle all 8 of us, there was a bit of a split in what kind of game we should all play. We didn’t have any means of getting a proper way to play them (PC’s, consoles, etc.) until Weiss and Pyrrha brought up that she could buy us the necessities. I was immediately against it. I brought up and showed what exactly would even be the bare minimum requirements for us to play games together. 

I didn’t hate the idea, don’t get me wrong. But, I didn’t want them to waste their money on things that we wouldn’t properly use. Thankfully, Ruby seemed to have another idea. 

Her idea was to let Weiss or Pyrrha buy a console, some controllers, and a TV for now. The games could be dealt with later but I agreed with the idea and everyone else didn’t seem against it. With that settled, I asked team RWBY if they wanted in on some Pokémon action since my team and I were about to start another nuzlocke. 

The outcome of 8 people trying to all play a nuzlocke wasn’t as easy as we all thought it was. Ruby reset the first time since she thought losing the first trainer battle with the rival meant she had to reset, Blake and Yang kept killing their first encounters, and other stuff. Eventually I had a plan to divide us up for three reasons. 1 - To simplify in remembering who got what and where people currently were in the game, 2 - less complaining whenever a reset happened, 3 - more cooperation with our friends.

Wait! I forgot to say how we were divided. Basically: We had a wheel with names on them, team RWBY spun first because of a lien flip, Weiss got Ren, Blake got Nora, Yang got Pyrrha, and Ruby got me. 

We also made a few other rules: Every route we had a mulligan for another encounter if both people agreed to it, losing all Pokémon in a fight but still having some in the PC means we can still play that save, and we couldn’t let things that happen in the games affect our actual friendships in real life. 

As for what happened during the games with just me and my team: A lot happened. Pyrrha and Nora forgot a few rules sometimes, Ren’s crit chance is insane which meant he had less party members most of the time, and most of the time our first few fights or encounters were against Pokémon that were too much for our low-level starters. A few of the 'new' rules were used by us before since we progressed that little usually. Whenever we did get a good run going, one gym fight or two would eventually kill that run.

I’d say a few more things if Ruby wasn’t currently spamming texts about getting a quick route encounter in. Till my next extry, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Just going straight into it! After all the randomizer nuzlockes, can you guess which pair got the furthest? Can you? If you guessed Blake and Nora, you’d be right and just as surprised as the rest of us! 

No offense to them, I thought Nora would get her and Blake into more trouble than necessary which would lead to more losses and restarts. I didn’t expect Blake to adapt to Nora’s thought process. They’re not that far ahead though since they’re just at the 6th gym right now. Oh yeah! To explain things a bit late, before we all paired off and stuff, we made the location of the region also change with each reset. 

The location changes weren’t for all of us, it was just for each pair. For example, Ruby and I could be in Johto for one playthrough yet Weiss and Ren could be in Kalos. And speaking of Weiss and Ren, they seem to be the most argumentative pair. On my end it seems like Weiss spends a lot of time looking at all the Pokémon she runs into or fights. She doesn’t just ‘study’ them for what they’re weak to, she just likes the designs. It’s usually the dog or cat-like Pokémon that gets her attention. Ren says he is having fun with the game, but some things still get to him. I get it, I really do. Some of the RNG is dumb, a move missing or a Pokémon dodging is annoying, things like that. While his chances of getting a critical hit are somehow higher than any of us, his catch rates are horrible. The least amount he used was 30 Pokéballs for a level 9 Pikachu. A Pikachu!

Actually, Yang and Pyrrha are having a bit of trouble too. I guess it’s due to their natures becoming a chaotic mix? Ruby told us that Yang really gets into games and wants to fight or do everything in them. Fighting games with online stuff were banned in their house with how competitive and rageful she became. A similar thing could be said for Pyrrha. Like how she enjoys beating the rival NPC even when it’s the worst matchup of Pokémon. I don’t know how they’re doing it, but if they have fun like that then I can’t take that away from them. 

So yeah, that’s the current ranking of where everyone is: Blake and Nora at first, Ruby and I second, Weiss and Ren barely above Yang and Pyrrha. As for the whole ‘having an actual console’ problem, it’s…going? We’re all pretty split on what console to get. I’ve been a fan of most consoles, Ruby and Yang grew up with the Xbox series, Weiss leans more to the Playstation series, Nora and Ren like the Nintendo Switch, and Pyrrha doesn’t see much of a difference between an Xbox and a Playstation. Don’t even get me started on what TV we’re trying to decide on. 

Other than our Pokémon journeys, the semester break was over and the first day back started with Nora instigating a food war with team RWBY. I wasn’t paying that much attention but Ren and Pyrrha were already dragging Nora and I to another end of the cafeteria as other students evacuated. My brief surprise at realizing how far we were was overshadowed (literally) when Nora somehow made a giant mountain out of lunch tables while RWBY were at their own ‘base’. 

The situation reminded me of a series about 4-people teams protecting their own base but I lost those thoughts as RWBY began making their way towards us. Nora and Pyrrha met them headfirst while I held Ren back to plan something with him. It (the food fight) was going evenly for a few minutes. Ren was dealing with Weiss since she was the most dangerous as a ‘support’. I still don’t get why he was using just a pair of leeks as weapons. Nora was trading blows with Yang, free guess as to who used watermelons as gauntlets and who used turkeys also like gauntlets. I think those two were also screaming things as they punched each other, something like ‘Ra’ or ‘Uda’? Obviously, those two were having the most fun in this food fight. 

Pyrrha and Ruby were dealing with each other. Ruby’s speed was really making my partner work hard. My partner was using every little piece of metal available to defend and attack. Pyrrha had a long bread loaf that was only used when a metal plate or utensil missed Ruby, who didn’t really use food as weapons for some reason. The resident reaper was throwing some exploding cans of soda that didn’t even make Pyrrha flinch.

Now, me going against Blake should have been a two second fight, which is why I’m glad I made it through half a minute. Though I will say those sausage links were something, I had a long piece of bread that was turned into half its length when trying to block Blake’s first attack. Boosting my eyesight with ‘aura eyes’ somehow allowed me to see when Blake was about to switch with a clone. It didn’t help for that long when she noticed I was ‘predicting’ her semblance use. 

She faked me out by using her ‘shadows’ twice and then I was left on the floor wrapped up in sausages. I struggled to sit up and the first thing I saw was Blake with a turkey on her head running away from Nora. I didn’t see Yang around but I did see a large hole in the ceiling, guess Nora won the punching contest. Something bumped me from behind and it was surprisingly Ren. Well not just Ren, he had his feet stuck in some butter and slid towards me. I leaned over to watch as Pyrrha fought both Weiss and Ruby while Nora was still chasing Blake around. I realized my team was starting to lose as Weiss used a glyph so Ruby could tackle Pyrrha. I focused back on Ren since helping him out of the butter would help a lot more than if I tried jumping back into battle alone. 

Breaking out of the sausages was harder than it looked but I quickly focused on chipping at the butter around Ren’s feet. Who knew how good a few corn dogs can be as tools? I barely got a foot of his free before Miss Goodwitch and Headmaster Ozpin came in, which made all of us stop. Nora was now the one with a turkey on her head while Blake was in a chokehold. Weiss and Ruby were wrapped up in soda cans. And Pyrrha had half of her body caked in sauce and food. Yang reappeared and made another hole in the roof as she landed right in front of our teacher and headmaster. 

Let’s just say Headmaster Ozpin saved our behinds by only giving us a week of detention with Professor Oobleck. It's one of the reasons I haven't been journaling as much. Well, my team got Professor Oobleck, RWBY got Professor Port. While I do get why not a lot of students like Professor Port’s class, I think it’s starting to make more sense why he’s the teacher for the class. He doesn’t just tell stories, he also tells us how certain Grimm can be dealt with. 

Ursas are very powerful but also slow so they can be at least outrun or trapped. Beowolves and Boarbatusks are only as dangerous as their numbers. Nevermores are more territorial than others and their ‘caws’ are very distinctive of how close or far we are from them. A few other Grimm have rules like that, but he also talks about certain kinds of people he has come across. The glory seekers, the gentle giants, the emotionally wounded, and a lot of other examples of people we’ll most likely come across or even become. 

Professor Oobleck, however, is a bit much. Besides talking faster than what any of us can handle, he also has us ‘complete’ a chapter a day. By that I mean the homework he gives us is usually making notes out of everything from that chapter of the day until we get through enough chapters for a quiz after a week or so. 

I’ll stop this entry here, Ren and I have finally found two other animes that we want to try replicating stuff from. We’ve somehow found the time to research things even though we’ve been busy enough with the increase of school work and the usual yet weird shenanigans. This time we’ll be letting the girls watch our studying and process! Maybe we’ll create something better than ‘aura eyes’. Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Like I said in my last entry, Ren and I got other sources we can try to replicate moves from. I also said that instead of this just being a ‘bro thing’, I wanted to invite the rest of our friends to get some more input and opinions. To spoil it a bit early: the series I was working with was ‘Bleach’ while Ren had ‘Naruto’. 

Before things get crazy, Ren and I did look through a lot….a LOT of media. I really wanted to do something with ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ and Ren wanted to do something with ‘One Piece’ but things just didn’t work out. Like some of the scientific problems that come up in ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ and how some things in ‘One Piece’ are already a thing (extra body features and the use of elements via Devil Fruits). Sure the fight scenes are cool, but actually doing the techniques are a bit more costly or time-consuming than what we want. We don’t have the luxuries of the Grimm or evil people letting us prepare supplies for if we want to transmute stuff into gold or want to use dust to make a giant fireball. We need the kinds of techniques that we can use whenever we want to use them without it biting into our finances. Techniques that require something more on the inside than a material. 

On my end, I went with the ‘easiest’ choice of trying to make something similar to the move ‘Getsuga Tensho’. I say ‘easiest’ since it should be no surprise to how this went. From what I gathered, the Getsuga Tensho is done by first gathering a lot of energy into an object (like a sword) and then releasing it from said object via simple actions (slashing). 

I can proudly say step 1 was done in a short amount of time, mostly because I had Pyrrha, Weiss, and Nora to help me. Pyrrha was there since I needed her to take my sword out of my hands fast in case something goes wrong, I asked Weiss for her help since I needed someone to look over my notes and the actual descriptions of the move, and Nora was there to make sure I don’t ‘overload’ the amount of aura I was putting into my sword. I was, at first, confused when Nora came over to help me until I realized that she would be the person to know when something is overloaded with too much energy. 

Ren was on his own side of the training room and was being assisted by Ruby, Yang, and Blake. Ruby was just…there I’m pretty sure, Yang was ready to stop Ren in case something went wrong, and Blake was the one checking on Ren’s notes and comparing them to the actual instructions. Oh yeah! Ren was attempting a…‘Rasengan’! Right, that move (Ren just reminded me, making this entry in the dorm). 

Anyway…the actual things we did….okay, so the process of sending aura into my sword was easy because of how Crocea Mors was made to be able to channel aura into it. I don’t know why or how Crocea Mors has that function, but it makes sense since I coated the sword with aura before. I didn’t know that kind of thing wasn’t exactly normal for a weapon to have. The shield part of Crocea Mors was still in its sheath form on my hip due to me not wanting to wield a dangerous sword attack with only one hand. After surrounding Crocea Mors with enough aura, I turned to a training dummy and raised my hands above my head. I continued to use about 20% of my aura while imagining what I wanted to happen. 

I can freely say that imagining a result isn’t the best method with how much can go wrong in reality. When I swung my arms down and tried to shoot off a crescent-shaped blast of aura, I didn’t at all know how to actually do it. Which would have led to some drastic damage if Pyrrha didn’t pull my sword away with her semblance. By the time I recovered from my brief fear of messing up, I looked over to see that my sword lost the aura around it as soon as it got away from my hands and didn’t explode. I decided that was the best time for a break with how close I was to blowing myself up or worse. By break, I just meant going over what went wrong in my first attempt with Weiss, Pyrrha, and Nora before I tried again. 

Meanwhile, Ren’s first stage was going great as well! Yang was very watchful of Ren gathering aura to his hand as Blake and Ruby were giving him the ‘official’ steps on what to do next which was….turning that aura in his hand into a ball? Wait no, it was more of a ‘focus the aura to your hand and shape it to resemble a spinning sphere’. That next step would be where Ren was stuck on like how I was. 

The next hour or so of us trying our ideas for new moves didn’t really change from how stuck we were. I was at least able to decrease how much aura I was pumping into my sword and Ren was faster with getting aura to surround his left hand. Besides how lacking the results were for this first day or so of training, Ren and I had way more fun when we had help instead of just relying on ourselves. 

Near the end of Ren and I trying to learn how to bring these moves to life, Ren managed to get some more progress when he used both hands instead of just one. According to him, he saw it was possible to do it with one hand but forgot that the main character of the series sped up the process by having more hands. I thought the ‘having more hands’ part was less literal until he showed me a clip of the blond protagonist summoning copies of himself to help with the technique. When he used both hands in the next attempt (one hand facing upward and one hand facing down above the other hand), it was easier for his aura to become somewhat a spherical shape. I don’t know where that would be in the order of the process, but hopefully that’s a good amount of improvement anyway. 

Unlike our ‘aura eyes’ or ‘aura hands’ (whatever we called that one), these techniques that we’re trying to replicate were a lot harder to do than we thought. I don’t mind it! I’m not…angry that the moves aren’t easy to do, but maybe these techniques are fictional for a reason. Ren and I will still continue with these attempts though. Instead of ending up getting nothing done, Ren and I’s ideas could just take up half of the time we’re in the training rooms and we can all actually train for the other half. We’ll probably have to experiment with the girls’ assistance more often as well….I hope they don’t mind that. I mean….maybe they were just being nice? At the same time, I want us to diversify our skills since we’d all need some hidden ace in case things really get tough for us.

This is where I’ll end this entry. The next one should be more ‘fun’ ‘cause I don’t want to turn this journal into a textbook or something. I’ll try to keep things like practice or training shorter in the future and go back to using this journaling thing for memorable moments. See ya next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

As promised, I’m keeping the serious stuff short. Ren and I are still working on replicating the techniques we’ve chosen with the help of our friends and we also do regular training more often with them. 

Now onto the fun stuff! A bit of a reminder, Pyrrha and Weiss were the ones who could choose a game console and stuff for us to play with. Nora and Yang were the most vocal and pushy of when they were going to actually bring something in, but the rest of us didn’t mind the wait since we still had our Pokémon games and school things to worry about. And all that waiting did pay off! 

It was a slow day, you know…Friday…no classes…two more days with no classes. I know a few people would vocally disagree, but we all wanted to get some more progress done in our Pokémon playthroughs. Pyrrha and Weiss were gone though since maybe….10 A.M.? While they were gone, we all relaxed in a common room to waste time. Ren and Blake were reading over notes and I was playing a board game with Yang, Ruby, and Nora. Or at least we tried playing the board game, it came with an instruction manual that was almost as wide as a table when spread out. I don’t think anyone would blame us for just making our own rules at that point. 

It was almost noon- wait no, it was past noon when Pyrrha and Weiss came back. We were all still reading or playing when we got a text or two about them being back. Instead of just simple texts, the texts were almost panicked (to me at least) with how many exclamation marks there were. I don’t think we even put the board game back correctly before we all rushed back to our dorm rooms. And by ‘we’...I mean just me since Ruby was already speeding away in a storm of rose petals which made Nora and Yang chase after her. Ren and Blake were about to help me but I needed them to make sure those three didn’t break or run into anything while they headed to Weiss and Pyrrha. 

After a very boring few minutes of cleaning up after everyone and finally being able to go where our dorm rooms were, I could already hear sounds of an argument coming from team RWBY’s room. I decided to just sit near where Ren was instead of trying to get involved in that mess. Thankfully he chose the floor instead of sitting on one of the bunk beds that looked like one sneeze away from accidentally hurting somebody.

From what he told me, it was currently Nora and Ruby arguing against Weiss, Blake, and Yang about what game should be bought first. Pyrrha was literally in the middle to try and make sure the argument doesn’t get physical. I was then going to ask what console Pyrrha and Weiss got for us before Ren raised a hand to point somewhere. To my surprise, and a bit of disappointment, it was two boxes of Nintendo switches…Switches?..and another box that seemed to be for something else. While I’m glad that Pyrrha and Weiss agreed on a console…I was not expecting a Nintendo Switch to be considered their best option. 

I do get the upsides, don’t get me wrong. You’re able to bring it around, can connect to wireless headphones and stuff, etc. But come on, in terms of graphics and storage space (actually important things for a gaming system) the Nintendo Switch is on the low end for things like that. Again, I get it….besides a laptop/computer…the Switch would be the only gaming system that could handle 8 players in some games and at most 4 players. I hope the others will get into video games a bit more now so this whole thing wasn’t a waste. 

Before any arguing could be done I walked over to help Pyrrha out. She looked close to breaking something, which wouldn’t be good considering her semblance. I channeled the bit of older sibling energy I had to quiet all of them down so I could ask Weiss what she and Pyrrha bought besides the Nintendo Switches. That third box was for some third-party controllers since they were cheaper but still had good reviews. 

When I asked what games were packaged with the Nintendo Switches, Weiss was confused on what I meant. Pyrrha looked confused too and that wasn’t a good thing. I explained to them and you know…Yang, Blake, Nora, Ren, and Ruby…that when you buy a Switch at a store you would get to choose at least one game to take with it. That explanation didn’t seem to help either so I asked Ruby to open one of the Switch boxes to look inside it. 

I wasn’t done asking for her help when she already opened the first Nintendo Switch box and pulled out a small, plastic….case? Yeah..case…so she pulled out the plastic game case and it was instantly recognizable. It may not be that great of a game to be the first one to expose to my friends, but Super Smash Bros. Ultimate wasn’t terrible to lead into more games…if they didn’t ‘rage’ at it first.

I’ll end this entry here since Nora and Ruby are wrapping up a tournament that we started with each other. We couldn’t choose 'mains' since it was a completely fresh game and we didn’t want to buy any of the DLC fighters yet. Nora chose Pikachu (of course) and Ruby went with Fox. The third-party controllers worked great and we instantly used the unique feature about Smash Ultimate by all going in with the 8-fighters option. I was Link (duh), Pyrrha chose Samus, Ren was Yoshi, Blake was Donkey Kong, Weiss was Kirby, and Yang was Mario (please…the puns…make it stop….). Next entry I’ll talk more about what happened and when we tried the game that came with the other Switch, till next time journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Another long break between this entry and the last, but for yet another good reason!

A lot has happened to say the least. To start things off, Ren is progressing a lot faster than me with his technique recreation. He can now consistently do the spherical shaping part of the Rasengan. But, the power part is where Ren’s been messing up on. Due to his reserves the shaping part takes a lot out of him and leaves only 40% or so aura left to spend on the power part. Of course, that problem is solved when I’m able to recharge his aura. Oh right, since the color of aura stays as a constant thing, that meant that Ren's Rasengan is a pinker color than the original version. Anyway, that leaves Ren stuck at about 60%-ish done with his technique while I’m still trying to get my aura to launch after whenever I swing Crocea Mors. 

Moving on from the training talk, something…something’s going on with team RWBY. During the time between journal entries, we have played more Smash Bros. but only got to about halfway through the story mode and other things. A few of the new characters we unlocked had some of us starting to really like the game. In order from my team to RWBY’s: I like to switch between Link, Shulk, and Ike, Nora stuck with Pikachu but sometimes chooses Pichu and Diddy Kong, Pyrrha’s choices were Bayonetta and the Samus’s (the former choice was not something I expected but hey…she can play with who she likes), and Ren surprised all of us with his Little Mac plays. Ruby of course picked the faster characters (Sonic, Meta Knight, etc.), Weiss chose Robin (makes sense with the whole magic and swordplay thing), Blake normally played Greninja and Cloud, and Yang somehow uses Bowser, Captain Falcon, and Incineroar great. 

The ‘tierlist’ of which one of us is better….doesn’t exist! It’s weird…really weird, not only are Ruby and I’s teams evenly matched most of the time in terms of wins (team and free for all fights) but even just within our teams it’s about an even chance of someone winning a round and then losing. I should also mention just how many pictures and replays we saved from said matches (about 3 or 5 days worth of stuff). 

Wait....forgot to mention and correct some things from the last entry. Because of all the dust advancements that’s been done, instead of needing TVs we were able to use a holographic thing that requires one of our scrolls to slide into it and whatever. There were, thankfully, other areas on the device that allowed us to connect a Switch to it. With both of the teams having a Switch, team RWBY kept Smash Bros. while my team kept the other game that came with the second Switch. 

Speaking of the second Switch, the added game for that was Mario Kart 8. Again, probably not the greatest game to introduce to new people but it worked out fine like Smash! Actually, our experience with MK was different since we couldn’t play with all 8 of us on one Switch. We were about to not play MK at all when we thought we needed another copy to play together. Ruby, however, saved the day after tinkering around with a few options and menus. I don’t know what she did and refuse to try and explain it.

We did the same things as when we played Smash Bros.: We played with the regular characters and ca- karts but did change stuff after unlocking a few things. I usually chose the little red character with the white mask, Nora liked using Toad, Pyrrha had Princess Daisy, Ren was Yoshi, Ruby had Baby Mario, Weiss was Rosalina, Blake didn’t really care which one she had, and Yang chose Donkey Kong (once more..the puns….make them end..please…). We didn’t care that much about the kart customizations other than what’s the fastest or easier to drift with. Speaking of drifts, Yang and Ruby never stopped drifting after the races began. Blake, Ren, and Weiss also liked to leave traps at certain turns and spots. Pyrrha took things more slowly yet still won a few times while I liked to hang in the back to abuse the pity system for items.

Instead of saying what happened like how I like to do, I’ll just describe our time with MK8 like this: Ren, Blake, Ruby, and I didn’t really take the races seriously while Nora, Yang, Weiss, and Pyrrha got very competitive. Like…screaming-at-every-hit-or-loss type of competitive.

Now, onto the more serious stuff. A while after we played games both video and board-based: RWBY got themselves involved with some big trouble. While my team and I noticed a bit of tension as well as Blake looking more and more restless, we didn’t think they’d do something like sneak out to try and spy on the White Fang. Wait no there was a lot more than that. 

Something, something they got involved with fighting a giant robot…a giant robot! Obviously my team and I were worried first but then Nora complained about how RWBY got up to cooler adventures than us. And when Nora gets bored/jealous...it's never a good thing. Nora had me, Pyrrha, and Ren do our own little snooping around. We didn’t get to do anything like fight a giant robot, but we did have a somewhat, calm walk around Vale. 

I mean…it started all calm but Nora got her hands on some sugar and it led to her trying to free all the animals in various pet stores. Let’s just say that the end of that night ended with us also running away from people in uniforms….just not the White Fang kind. 

I’ll end this entry here, classes are really starting to pick up since the dance is coming closer. Don't really get why there's a dance but it should be fun. We (my team only since team RWBY has been stuck with detentions) have been trying our best in getting homework and studying done before the weekends so we have time for playing either on the Switch or with our separate files of Pokémon (as-in not the Nuzlocke ones). Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

Hey! After a lot of tests and assignments, we’re finally free….for….like a week or so. I mean we’ve started our short break for the dance earlier than this entry, but that’s because of some classes being on different schedules and all that. Anyway! While Ren is almost done with his technique recreation and I’m close to being halfway finished(it took so long to kinda launch aura from my sword), the girls have been a lot more busy. 

As mentioned in the last entry, team RWBY has…was…..was! was in detention for a while due to their latest adventure that led to breaking some giant robot that came from Atlas. They should be freed from it in time to enjoy the dance. The dance also seems to be some 'together' thing in preparation for the Vytal Festival that'll happen next semester. There’s already been a few students from other academies sent over to lodge in some of the extra dorms, or at least I assume there are extra dorms. Ren and I had to put our technique recreations on hold as we needed to train altogether for an event like this. I also asked RWBY how and why they came up with their ‘team attack’ combos. 

Our training method was just switching pairs for spars. So the spars could be Pyrrha and I vs Ren and Nora, Nora and I vs Pyrrha and Ren, and so on. We’d also record our spars to use for later to discuss what went right or wrong. For the most part, Pyrrha is a strong fighter but usually tries to take on the fighting like she didn’t have a partner. Nora and Ren are better partners but really only seem to know how to fight with each other, which makes sense. As for me…..well, yeah..I’m me. I can do a lot more in fights now compared to a while ago….but I’m still mostly a walking wall who tries and fails to hit people with the pointy part of my sword. 

Wait! Forgot to mention, RWBY seems to be a magnet of…sorts. Not only are two of the transfers, Sun and Neptune, a bit friendly with them but also some other team from Haven. Wait, I think both of them are from Haven….alright so Haven teams seem to be really interested in team RWBY. Sun is an alright guy, maybe a bit too free spirited (he wears an open button-up for Pumpkin Pete’s sake) since he can give Nora a run for her money when it comes to crazy ideas. He also had to reveal his semblance when Nora challenged him to an arm-wrestle. I still can’t believe Nora won against four Sun’s….Suns…Suns’….however you say it.

There’s supposed to be two other people from Sun’s team but Neptune dropped the hint that Sun went way ahead of most visiting students. I may not know the guy, but a team leader going off on their own without their team to a completely new academy is odd to say the least. His nunchuck-gun-staff thing is cool, though. He’s also a Faunus, a primate-type of faunus to be specific. It may not be much but he seems very creative with how he uses his tail for stuff. Neptune is….well…certainly someone. I don’t know really, he’s also alright but there’s something off. I am not saying all that just because Weiss seems to like him! I mean yeah his style is nice, his weapon’s cool, and he can somehow make his smile twinkle….but so what? 

There’s also Penny, who we actually got to meet a few days ago. She’s like if Nora and Ruby were fused together. Really energetic, gets on Weiss’ nerves a lot, and can do stuff that you wouldn’t expect her to do. Seeing her in spars really cemented the idea of how much I need to improve on. On a sidenote, I was going to ask Weiss to the dance but…yeah…I think that ship is long gone. Obviously I’m going with my team too, but that doesn’t really count as anything.

Can't forget to add that Nora had the idea we could do some team dance sometime during the night and Ren’s been working us hard to make sure we get the steps right. I was mostly fine since I did a few dances with my sisters and other people back home, but Pyrrha surprised me with how…incapable of dancing…she could be. Nora being good at dancing wasn’t something I doubted but she somehow taught Pyrrha decently enough so she could finally follow what Ren planned for us. It’s not like Pyrrha was hating the idea either, thankfully. I never saw her be so happy before with something like dancing. 

Of course, we paused our gaming activities with how busy things have been for us. There were a few upcoming games and games on sale I thought we could try, but those would have to wait for a while. Did I mention that team RWBY was also tasked with finishing up the preparations for the dance? Have I? Hold on….okay so I didn’t…right, so I think it was team ‘CFVY’ (I think that’s right) that was assigned to setting up the dance but their mission is running longer than expected. I guess Ms. Goodwitch or the Headmaster thought it’d be easier to have team RWBY finish things up as some sort of extra punishment. 

I’ll stop the entry here for now, I think Nora and Penny are doing another competition. We can't have them break another workout room, right? Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

A short update on things: Ren managed to fully recreate the Rasengan. I know I said in the last entry that we took a pause on our recreations, but I thought it would be fine for Ren to continue on since he was close to finishing it. It turned out great anyway! Yes, there’s clear differences between what he does and how it is in Naruto but it was still cool! Ren’s version isn’t as destructive but the shockwave (I think that’s correct) after it hits is a small explosion of air that pushes everyone but him back a good distance. 

A weird thing we found out is that the properties of the technique changes depending on who’s aura is added onto it. As in, Ren still goes through the whole process by himself as the rest of us could either hold a hand near the ball or put a hand on Ren’s arm while giving a bit of our aura. I won’t spoil much so I’ll just say this: my aura increases the size, Pyrrha’s adds a certain pull to it, and Nora’s turns it into a whole other technique. Funny enough, the changes that Nora’s aura causes to the Rasengan is actually a separate technique in Naruto that was done by a different character that tried making a Rasengan with their lightning ability. We also voted to not let Ren reveal his recreated technique during the Vytal Festival. 

The main reason for that is how dangerous the technique turned out to be. I was the test subject for it since I had the most aura of my team and my aura went all the way down to 30%..... 30% . We guessed that it’s mostly due to the ‘grinding’ part of the Rasengan and how it would constantly attack someone’s aura until it dispels. The shockwave effect after it hits doesn’t seem to do any damage but it still sent me back about 10 feet. It’s not a huge distance but it would vary depending on the weight and how prepared someone would be on the receiving end. 

The other reason was to not cause some sort of tidal wave of people trying to replicate more stuff from manga or cartoons. I hope I mentioned it before but if I didn’t I’ll just summarize it: when checking for things Ren and I could replicate, we found a lot of different moves and attacks that were far more dangerous than what we wanted to try. There were attacks that created whole tsunamis, self-made earthquakes, and other wide-scale effects that we wanted to stay away from. 

It’s no wonder that an aura-enhanced Crocea Mors to the max limit, about 40% of my aura, was able to create a sizable crater in the ground when we experimented outside the school. I can’t wait to see what it would be like to send that kind of force flying through the air from said sword. The next idea I have is to try to continuously have that kind of power on Crocea Mors so I could still have the enhanced effect after I shoot out a faux-Getsuga Tensho. Enhancing my shield didn’t change much besides the expected effect of helping me handle more weight or force. 

As for what cool combination attacks we created: I won’t be spoiling that at all. As much as I like to think that my journal is safe, I’ve been thinking of trying to keep these entries as basic as possible in case anyone has been or will happen to read these. Maybe I should set a password or something for this app.

Oh! Another thing I wanted to share is that instead of another day or so of training, I wanted us to take a break for a whole day since the dance is in like…two days? Yeah, two days. I still don’t have a real date to go with, but who cares? This won’t be the last time we’d have a Beacon event so it’ll probably be fine….right? I noticed that Pyrrha didn’t seem to have someone to go to the dance with too. She talked about how it’s normally difficult for people to really approach her considering her status and success. Like any good friend, I promised that I would show up in a dress and dance with her if someone didn’t step up. I don’t know if that was the right thing to say, yet her surprised reaction and follow-up laugh was worth it to me. 

At least I’m not the only one with recent problems, I’m pretty sure RWBY still has issues to deal with as the dance date gets closer. It was either issues with catering or Yang was trying to get some fog machines. Either those two or it was Ruby making the rest of her team chase her around the academy while trying to make her wear heels. Speaking of dance dates, I could be wrong about this, I’ve heard that Sun successfully asked Blake to the dance. If it’s true then I’m happy for them and I hope they have a good time and all that. I also thought Weiss was going to ask Neptune or vice versa. It’s not that noticeable, yet there’s some…odd distance between the two that wasn’t there yesterday. Maybe something happened?

Almost forgot! Nora’s dance idea was successfully practiced well enough to pull off at the dance. Would it surprise anyone if I told them we made a dance but didn’t at all have an actual song to do it with? We realized the mistake we made just after we did the whole dance in one take. That led to all 4 of us searching through song after song and tried our whole dance routine with them. It wasn’t until….the 98th song? 99th? It took about 100 songs for us to find the one that we could use. It was ‘Shine’ by Jeff and Casey Lee Williams, a father and daughter duo that turned out to have made a few other songs that we heard before. There was one song that Ruby listens to all the time called ‘Red Like Roses Part II’ and we found Yang’s favorite song ‘I Burn’ too. They also did a cover of one of Weiss’ songs, which is still their most viewed song by a good few millions of views. 

I think I’ll end the entry at that, Nora’s recent idea is all of us having a movie day during the whole day of relaxation. I have one movie picked out, ‘Detective Pikachu’, but each of us could choose up to two movies. We would have invited team RWBY if they weren’t still being ordered to do other stuff by Professor Goodwitch. Hope they at least get a long enough rest to enjoy the dance. Anyway, till’ next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

I know what I said about keeping serious things to a minimum, but I’ll have to flip the order to talk about fun stuff first and then some serious things after. 

To start off, the movie night went nicely. ‘Detective Pikachu’ went without a hitch. Nora was bouncing around whenever anything cool happened…so every 20 or 30 seconds. Ren’s movie, ‘The Giver’, was about some odd world where people’s lives were very…..constructed? Controlled? One of those, but it was definitely a movie that made me think about life more than I wanted to. Nora’s movie was ‘Ponyo’ and it was not something I expected to enjoy. I’ve seen animated movies before, that movie was something I wish I saw as a kid. Pyrrha’s movie was ‘Speed Racer’. I…can’t believe….I’ve lived a life…without knowing about the series or the character. I don’t care what the reviews said of the movie, it was the best movie of the night for me. 

A day or so later, Ren went out and somehow won some equipment and a dancing game that was scroll compatible. I don’t know how that kind of thing happens, but hey free stuff. Pyrrha and I were busy keeping Nora company (playing games) so Ren could start having weekly breaks for himself. It took a bit to figure out what goes where and some blind trust to hope that Ren didn’t get anything hacked or broken. 

And uh, let’s just say that we all learned when Ren’s emotions finally seeped through. He takes dancing seriously, like really seriously. I’m no slouch in dancing games but I quickly found out there’s levels to it. Pyrrha is decent at the game, but Nora is something else entirely. She doesn’t even do the poses we’re supposed to follow and she still gets scores higher than Ren…Ren! And, when we talked about watching movies again during breakfast, Ruby instantly wanted in on the action. I would have said yes if we didn’t have the usual stuff to worry about. By ‘we’, I meant that team RWBY was still busy with preparing the dance event and dealing with Professor Goodwitch’s punishments. My team and I were also making sure we’re ready for the dance and some other things. More training, more team synergy, and all that. Ren's 'Rasengan' (we'll have to make another name for it eventually) is still powerful even if we can't let him use it. My own move replication was seeing some progress until I hit another snag.   

That was all just the fun stuff, and now the thing I deemed as serious is that after getting back from a night of group training I got a text that I couldn’t ignore. On my main scroll, not the Beacon-assigned one. I tried to keep that scroll very hidden and on mega-silent mode. I left a lot of things back home but kept that one with me in case…in case anything happened. I’m not that stupid, journal. I know Beacon- just getting to Beacon was a huge risk that I wouldn’t be prepared for. I saved enough lien to at least get to Vale proper halfway before having to do some odd jobs. Moving on, on my main scroll was a message I was dreading to get. Most of my family will be coming down sometime during the week after the dance. I don’t know why or how this will be happening but there’s only a few options…..three big ones really.

All the excitement I had for the dance and whatever else I’d do with my friends is now replaced with the mountain of nervousness I haven’t got rid of since I got the text. I’ve been thrown off from my usual sense of…anything. I’ve been sleeping later, waking up earlier, not doing that well on assignments or classes, and don’t get me started on missing out on dino nuggets during lunch period. It’s- I can’t even pretend that I’m fooling my friends that I’m fine. 

I think I also promised something I shouldn’t have? Well not promise-promise, but I put an ‘Arc’s word’ on it which my family has always said was worth more than a promise. It was related to what Pyrrha was talking about one time after a training session. Something something I’ll be wearing a dress if she didn’t find an actual date to the dance. Ren and I barely got suits so I’ll be dumpster diving for a dress in a guy's size after this. Till’ next time, journal.

Chapter Text

Hey Journal, 

Different entry intro, yet same old life. Well not ‘life’ life- you get it. Anyway, the dance happened! I wasn’t expecting a lot from RWBY, honestly, but I’m glad to have been proven so wrong. Seeing the area for the dance in the first place took a long time with the long line of fellow students trying to get in. Ren and I went by ourselves first as Nora said she needed to talk with Pyrrha about something. Ren went with a normal black suit with a green tie. I went with a light grey suit with a blue tie. We waited for what felt like hours but the doors were opened enough for us to see strobing club lights and fog somehow leaking out. Guess Yang or Ruby got most of the say if the dance turned into something you’d see in a club more than a formal event. Actually, the loud music should have been the first hint.

Going off of that, I was surprised to see Yang as the receptionist instead of Ruby. As cool as my fellow leader is, even I knew that she couldn’t handle walking around, much less dancing, in heels. She wore a great white dress and seemed as upbeat as the music. She made a joke about Ren and I going to the dance together. I had a good chuckle as Ren just stared back in a ‘Ren’ way. The actual interior of the dance room was definitely Weiss and Blake’s touch. I was expecting a clash of white and black decorations since…you know…Weiss and Blake. Thankfully, it was a lot of baby blues and…..magenta? Pastel? Lavender? One of those purples. The tables and chairs looked very out of place. I’m talking like seeing 6-star restaurant tables in a Pizza Abode. The catering they had at one side of the large room looked expensive too. 

It was also where we spotted Ruby, she and Penny were chugging the strawberry milk fountain straight from the….whatever you call the starting point of a drink fountain. Ren and I stayed by Ruby and Penny, and we could spot Weiss and Blake from where we were. They….seemed to be having the least fun out of anyone in the room. Weiss was sitting at one of the fancy tables and playing with a limp, dead plant vase at the center of it. Blake seemed to be as miserable as her, too. I nudged Ruby to ask her what happened, which was hastily answered before she went back to enjoying the strawberry milk fountain. Apparently Weiss was going to ask……. Neptune ……to the dance but got rejected. Blake should have been with someone as well, guess they flaked out on her. 

I turned to Ren and got interrupted with his subtle nod to let me go off on my own. I went around the dance area to look for the blue-haired transfer student. An action that turned out be more difficult than I thought since there were actually a lot of blue-haired students. But never fear, I found him eventually and Sun. Sun looked out of his mind as he wildly gestured at Neptune. Neptune’s face proved that it wasn’t a joke being told, looked more like an argument….a one-sided argument.  

I knew Sun could handle his own friend, but I wanted to at least get my word in. I caught the tail end of whatever Sun finished saying before he noticed me. I gave him a dude nod and stopped right next to him. I was about to ask what happened with Neptune if he didn’t give me the details in a few seconds. The only thing I remembered next was pointing a finger at Neptune’s face and saying a few things. Next thing was him moving away from me and Sun and going over to where Weiss and Blake were. I talked with Sun for a bit and trusted Neptune to at least make it up to Weiss. I shoved Sun forward to get him to dance with Blake before making my way back to where I left Ren. 

I was surprised to not only see Ren gone, but Yang was now hanging out with Penny as Ruby was nowhere in sight. Yang pointed a thumb to the reception table to show that Ruby took over the position. I looked around for Ren and got to see him being spun around by Nora who wore a simple and short light green dress. Oh, my bad…I meant a light green dress with sparkles! She even had a small corsage of pink lotus flowers settled in her hair. I turned back to ask Yang how she and the rest of RWBY got the dance set up like this before being suddenly awestruck at how Pyrrha looked. Don’t get me wrong! I….I wasn’t ever blind to how…beautiful…she was. But, wow…just wow. She wore a yellow side slit dress and had her own corsage of blue roses on the left side of her chest. I recovered quickly to ask if her date would be okay with us taking her time for a bit to do the team dance. I shut my joke down when she looked away. Surprise, surprise journal…..she didn’t have a date to the dance! HER! PYRRHA! I expected at least three dozen people asking her, so what happened? 

That was the exact thing I asked her and got the answer of people must have been too afraid to ask her out. Such a thing was too ridicu…ridocilu…..ridiculous! But, a promise is a promise. I told Pyrrha to stay where she was then sped off back to the dorm room. An epic transition later, I returned to the dance in my own dress. Couple handfuls of people laughing at me later, I met back up with Pyrrha who also got a good laugh from me making good on my promise. After that…it was the best dance I ever went to. I danced a few rounds with Pyrrha, with Nora, and even Ren. Nora went off to get our team dance song up on the song cue while the rest of us took a break with a few drinks. Team RWBY and Penny also got a kick out of me wearing a dress. I shrugged off the looks and partied with my friends. When I heard the first seconds of ‘Shine’ playing, I immediately got my team’s attention to head to the center of the dance floor. I can’t describe it well enough of how many people were watching us do our little number. Even the odd DJ for the dance who was wearing a huge bear mask/helmet thing! I wanted to look at Ruby and the rest’s face, but I couldn’t see a hint of them in my view. Guess they got to working again or dancing with their own partners. 

Halfway through the song we split up to dance with our respective partners. Pyrrha’s face never let go of the wide smile. The smile was still there on her face when the night started to die down. The three of us had to carry Nora after she overdosed on the strawberry milk fountain and other things she ate. The last thing I remember from us returning to our dorm was kicking my suit shoes off before flopping onto my bed but still in my dress. 

I’ll end the entry here for now even though I really wanted to talk about what RWBY and Penny actually did during the later half of the dance…..as well as what I learned about not checking where I was sleeping. Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Hey Journal,

As promised in the last entry, I’ll get to what RWBY and Penny got up to while the dance was still going on. From what Ruby and Weiss told us, there were some people that were planning to do something bad to Beacon’s system as the dance happened. What they were planning on doing wasn’t known as RWBY and Penny got to the intruders in enough time to force a fight to break out. I don’t know how all that action was unheard of as it turned out that most of the area they fought in was completely ruined afterwards.

Even though it was them against 3 people, one of them had a powerful fire semblance. Or was it an explosion-related one? Whatever it is, it really gave them trouble. That person’s semblance was definitely the cause of how destroyed the control room or some became. And yeah, Ruby and Weiss were the ones telling us since Yang, Blake, and Penny got hurt real bad during the fight. BY’s been in the school’s nursing wing for a while now. Penny was taken back to Atlas for some reason instead of also being there.

As for the people who attacked that night, only one person was caught out of the three of them. Apparently, it was the leader guy of the White Fang…or at least the Vale side of it. His name was…was…uh..hold on. Ah, Adam Taurus! (Thanks Ren) I don’t know what the White Fang was doing in some plot against Beacon, but it couldn’t be good. It’s something Headmaster Ozpin and that Atlas general guy both decided to lock the school down for. Yep…that’s right….since the dance it’s just been us stuck in our dorm rooms….well…most of us. RW’s been visiting BY at the recovery wing a lot with a few other friends (Sun, Neptune, Velvet, and all them). I thought about going over to use my semblance on them, but Ren and Pyrrha have talked against it. Even though my heart’s thinking the right thing, maybe it was better for all of them to get some rest for now. It wouldn’t be that surprising for RWBY to get into more trouble if all of them were up and ready to get revenge on the other two attackers who managed to escape.

One of the great parts of the lockdown is that my team and I got back to gaming together and catching up on other stuff. While I would also want Ren and I to work on more recreation moves, the training rooms were almost always filled with other people who wanted to fight the boredom away. I can’t blame them, but come on! I’ll make another entry later about all the games we played as that could fill a good few pages on its own. To give a bit of a spoiler, we managed to find out about more….emulators? I…think that’s the right word. We researched about people who made it their life’s work to preserve games in some way in the form of dumping all the code onto a website where people can just play it on whatever platform they want. My respect goes out to them since I was able to introduce so many old-school games to my team and they have thankfully found at least 3 games to enjoy while we’re in the lockdown. Ruby has also taken advantage of this to help out Blake and Yang relieve a lot of their boredom. Weiss….I worry about her now as she somehow now spends most of her time either doing a lot of homework or using 3-4 scrolls to grind some cutesy-looking games. I tried to ask her about it and she hissed back to leave her alone…..hissed.

Oh! Don’t want to forget that because of all the recent danger….my family has sent me a message about them visiting sooner……yaaaaaay (read: end me). I thought I’d have a lot more time to be prepared for whatever they try to do when they get here! I tried to even tell Professor Goodwitch about it…but most of the teachers and staff at Beacon have been trying to keep students in their dorm rooms or just somewhere populated.

Anyway, things went from being really fun to feeling cramped. Now if you’ll excuse me, Nora is demanding another night of turning the room into a massive pillow fort. Till next time, journal!

Chapter Text

Dear Journal, 

It’s been…wow, that long? Time really does fly. Anyways. After all the chaotic gaming parties we’ve been having, we tried finding more stuff we could pi- freely obtain with a bit of effort! It wasn’t just more games (Nora went really out there and is still obsessed over a few games about a..a demon dude who likes pizza and ice cream) but we also found a few shows and movies we could watch as the academy is still under the whole lockdown thing. An animated show called ‘Hero 108’ was one of the first ones we watched and I don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen Ruby, Nora, and Yang be so into something before…ever. Of course Nora decided to try and ema-emu-emo- emulate! She tried to emulate what one of the characters could do with his eyes and…it did not at all go how she expected. 

I will only say that I was surprised that she did emit lightning out from somewhere, but it'd be way cooler and saner if it was actually the eyes they came out of. We went through a few other cartoons that at least 5 of us wanted to check out. There was rarely a time we finished a series all the way through due to either losing interest over time or there was a noticeable decrease in care or production in the later episodes. Like ‘Lucifer’, that was a really promising show about the lord of the underworld(s) working with cops and then…well something resembling a conclusion. Thankfully to get our minds off that show Blake found out a way for us to watch all of the Marvel live-action movies up to like…I think it was ‘Thunderbolts’? We appreciated her so much for it at the end of the movie marathon, I don’t think Yang even made a pun to her once the whole time. 

Whatever the last movie we had watched was, it doesn’t matter since the whole ride was very worth it. I’ve always heard and seen people say that the ‘Endgame Saga’ was THE movie saga yet it was already like 2 or so decades since anything was really brought up in terms of the MCU. If the movies were around during my childhood, I would have had a lot more influence to be a Huntsman. From characters like Scott Lang to Tony Stark, it was easy to see why these heroes or even the villains had at least a few thousands of fans. Yeah there were some issues here and there we had with a movie plot, character decisions, blah blah blah, but come on they’re superhero movies that paid off. The ‘post-Endgame’ movies did feel awkward to watch sometimes due to either the same issues that we didn’t enjoy or it was new issues we weren’t expecting to see. And I really want to get more into what we watched but there’s a lot more we have yet to see anyway. I’m still giving the whole ‘MCU’ experience a solid 7.5 for now. My friends are a bit more over the place with their rankings so in total it would be like a high 6 to low 7. 

As for anything about Ren and I’s…‘specialized’ training (best way to say it for now), it’s been going great for me, actually. My team and I finally got a training room booked for about 2 hours after what felt like a week of not being able to. Ren practiced to decrease the forming time it took for his Rasnegan while I finally managed to launch a wave of aura out of my sword. And that’s all I got done before the alarms started blaring from the destruction that the faux-Getsuga Tensho created. We scrambled out and got away as much as we could. That…didn’t really matter in the end as there were cameras anyway both in and out of the training rooms. We actually didn’t get in that much trouble with Miss Goodwitch (the overseer of said training rooms because duh her semblance). She only gave us a warning and that was it. 

About the whole ‘family coming to Beacon’ issue, guess that isn’t only happening to me as most of my friends’ parents/caretakers are also coming over due to the news of the attack being blown WAY out of proportion. Adam Taurus was here but nothing blew up and there weren’t any other students (besides RWBY and Penny) that got hurt. Not even the tower guards got hurt as they were knocked out…or drunk. I’m more surprised that there aren’t any articles about how Adam and whoever else were stopped by RWBYP, or PRWBY, or- you get it. 

That’d be all for now. We’ve been currently on a break from movies and got back to the usual gaming. I say that as Ruby and, surprisingly, Blake have something waiting for us to watch. Till next time, journal!